St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-28
The Day of Judgment With
Its Awful Scenes, Father
Gibbons Topic. ID
Rev, w. T. Vail DiScoupses on
the Anti-Poverty So
eieties of the Day. u
Words of Wisdom That We're
Dropped From the
Ministers Mouths.
LIGHTING THE CANDLES.
An Eloquent Sermon by Rev. j. f.
Smith at the jackson Street
Church,

An Eloquent Sermon by Rev. j. f.
Smith at the jackson Street
Church.
Rev. j. E. Smith delivered a forclble
sermon at the Jackson Street NJ. E.
church last evening. He took his text
from Psalms xviii. IS: Thou wilt
light my CANDLE" One of the peculiari-
ties of the Bible, he said, is that it connects
every occurrence of time with some dis
pensatiOn of the divine providence and
will. Whether it be joy OF sorrow, light
or darkness, peace or turbulence, there
is God behind it, and to Him we must
look for the response or answer. All
prosperity is but evidence of divine
favor; all adversely but the evidence of
the divine refusal to give sanction to
our ways. Light is the symbol of peace,
happiness and joy; darkness Is the
symbol of ignorance, sorrow and
wretchednesS. So when the DSalmiSt
declares that God will light his candle,
he means that He will light up all the
ennObling faculties of our nature, all
the developments of our being. If this
be the fact, two or three things follow
which are directly antagOnistic to the
atheistic deductions of science. The
atheists claim that there is nothing in
the world that is not of matter; that
there is no God, no spirit, 10 soul, but
that everything is the result of some
combination of matter. Neither is it in
accord with infidelity. which admits that
there is God. but that God has given
us no revelation except through nature.
This theory
DENIES INSPIRATION.
They tell me | must go to nature. 1t
prevents me from knowing what or who
God is. They say that the incarnation
is absurd, that God is too great to con-
Germ himself about us. Here | am desc
late. God has no sympathy, no love, no
care for me. l am an orphan. L say
this, if | had to choose between no God
and an indifferent God, | should prefer
the blackneSS of atheism. rather than a
God indifferent TO my entreatieS. There
is nothing so black, barren and deSOlate
i'll this world as the infidelity of the day.
What are the various forms of this
candle of the soul? There is the candle
of human reason, the power of Undue
ton and deduction, a power possessed
by man alone in its highest forms. Its
the one power that creates our sciences,
that forms our religiOns-the power
that makes inSufficiency all-sufficiency,
the power by which man can move
mountains, span the seas and trace the
constellation of the skies; that enables
him to approach the throne of God. The
second candle is that of memOry-that
wonderful power by which we can re-
call the past and hold it in the temple
of our imagery. This faculty is possessed
in its highest form by man alone, though
the animals may possess something akin
to memory. It's the least of the pow
ers given to man. Memory has its dark
side, by which it recalls deeds of
wretchedness or deeds of villainy. God
also lights the candle of human con-
science-that power that sits in judg-
ment over our own actions, that enables
us to stand as pillars of rock against
waves of opposition, that comforts us in
our loneliness, that enables men to
DEFY ALL POWERS
of time. 1t, too, like memory, has its
dark side. 1t often comes to us with
awful maledictiOn or with fire that
cannot be quenched, to harrow us with
the consciousness of our own wretched-
ness. Then there the candles of faith
and hope. Faith, by which weobelieve
everything that God has revealed. Hope,
that comes from God Himself and that
binds our hearts together. There is
one other candle, that of revelation, that
causes God to come out of the darkness
and that causes an illumination to come
from the other world.
The speaker concluded his eloquent
effort by demonstrating i'll a practical
way the terrible results of atheistic
sway and the beneficent influences
brought about by Christianity. This he
did by contrasting athriStic France
with Christian England and America.